Russia will cut off gas supplies to its pro-Western neighbour Ukraine tomorrow after talks aimed at ending a standoff collapsed without result.
Russian energy giant Gazprom said the deliveries would halt at 7am after talks in Moscow on a new contract for 2009 failed to reach an agreement amid differences over new prices and Ukraine's debts.
‘From 10am (7am Irish time) on January 1, 2009, Gazprom will fully, 100%, stop deliveries of gas to Ukraine," Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said.
‘All responsibility lies with the Ukrainian side’ he said after the talks with officials from Ukrainian gas firm Naftogaz.
In a dramatic move ahead of a midnight deadline, Gazprom earlier produced a letter which it said contained a warning from Naftogaz that Kiev could disrupt the transit of Russian gas being delivered to Europe.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said any violation of supplies of Russian gas to Europe would constitute ‘a completely different matter with very severe consequences for the transit country’.
‘Not only in its relations with Russia, as the exporter, but also with consumers in EU countries,’ he added in a televised meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
He also ridiculed Ukraine's leaders, who are seeking EU and NATO membership, for their ‘inter-clan fighting’. The economy there was in a "pre-default situation,' Putin added.
